Emulation Portraits

Kingsbury Scavenger Hunt

Camera Lucida

When I first started reading Camera Lucida, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the way that Barthes analyzes photography so much. I thought it was a little overwhelming and wasn’t sure if I would be able to get into reading the book, and finish it. The first day I picked up the book, I read to page 21 (the end of chapter 8) and then decided it was time to put the book down. The next morning while still lying in bed my dad came upstairs, picked up the book and started flipping through the pages, looking at the pictures and quizzing me on what the book was about. It was then that I realized I had actually picked up more information from Barthes over analyzing of photography than I had ever thought I would. It especially made me reflect on the part in chapter 2 where he talked about how a photograph says “Look”, “See”. A photograph has its own effect, and says its own thing. Another thing Barthes said that really stuck with me was when he says “In this glum desert, suddenly a specific photograph reaches me; it animates me, and I animate it”. He goes on to say, “The photograph itself is in no way animated...but it animates me: this is what creates every adventure”. This part of the book, is what I think made me continue to read the next morning. I reflected a lot on what he said in that part as I fell asleep that night, and even as I woke up. It gave me the realization that this is something that I should be aiming to do with my photographs (something I would like to do) I would love for the photograph to animate people, for them to feel the adventure.
I thought the book had some low points between here and the end where Barthes starts talking about how he found the picture of his mother. How he went back through time, to find the earliest picture of his mother, and it was like losing her all over again, but at the opposite end of life. I enjoyed reading where he compares dreams to photographs. He imagines his mother the way he finds here in the very first photograph of her taken that he finds in the old photographs, and he knows this is the photograph that he thinks of when he sees it. I felt that we as readers really go to know Barthes through his thoughts on photography which he expressed in his book. I thought his choice of words, “stadium” and “punctum” were an interesting approach for words to use that described the different parts of the photograph that have an effect on the viewer. When I talked to my dad the next time about the book, I found myself using these terms and thinking that they were helpful in explain the book and photography to my father. I feel as though I gained a lot more from the book than I ever would have expected to. I enjoyed reading about how he felt about portraiture, and I felt that there was a lot of truth behind what he said about it. I was especially interested where he talks about capturing the essence of someone in their portrait. I’ve never really done a lot of portraiture, and every time I try doing something with portraiture again, I feel that I struggle more and more. Barthes says that you should try and get as close to their soul as you can, I thought about this a lot over the week and it made me decide to try and do some portraiture with my emulation project. A couple weeks ago, I talked with Julee about this project and she mentioned doing something with my grandma as a part of my project, and I was kind of scared off by this idea and was opposed to it. I didn’t want anything to do with people in my photographs, but after reading what Barthes said about portraiture I decided to give it a try. I figured my gram is someone I know and she might be someone I could test and see if I could learn from what Barthes had said.

Emulation Project Continued

A couple more contact sheets for my emulation project. I decided to try doing some portrait shots of my grandma with one of her Orchids. These plants mean a lot to her, she seems to be the only person I know that can get them to flower year round. She even has one Orchid which currently has over a dozen blossoms, which in according to my gram you will only see this happen at the Orchid Show. She has been growing Orchids for over 15 years, and also enjoys photographing and painting them. She really has a special touch when it comes to these flowers, seeing as my parents can giver her a completely dead one and she can manage to make it blossom again. I'm not sure if I will use any of the portrait shots for my project, but I figured it would be worth it to document these shots anyways.

Emulation Contact Sheets

I've decided that with some of my free time over spring break, I would play around with my emulation project. I am very much drawn to the work that Robert Mapplethorpe did withflowers. I've always liked to do Macro work, and have especially been interested in flowers. I'm also thinking about combining Imogen Cunningham in my emulation study. I'd really like to focus on simplifying the flower, by putting in on either a black or white background. I have one other photographer in mind that I would possibly like to add to this project, but need to do a little more research on him.

In Class Lighting

These are the better of the photos that I got out of the in class lighting project that we did. My group had Rim lighting and Low lighting. We spent the majority of our time working on Low lighting, which was hard to produce with the light that we had. It took a lot of rearranging and playing around with the light position. We tried using the same light for Rim lighting, but it was too bright, so it would be nice to be able to try this part again with the correct lighting tools.

Lighting

Low Key Lighting is a style of photography that utilizes mostly dark tones to create a dramatic looking image. The background and subject matter is dark. It intensifies the contrast in an image through intensely reduced lighting. It adds a very dramatic mood to the images. This effect produces harsh shadows.

Rim Lighting is a technique that is used to give shape to objects in an image by backlighting the subject. When used as an effect, it gives the subject a lighted halo around them and a delicate look. It is most often used to define shapes against a background, but it can also be used to highlight subtle effects of a photograph. The light comes from above the subject and it must be directed toward the camera. For a more diffused effect, you can use a reflective surface to direct the light.